ITx6 Meets DW

17082009

I want to preface this post by saying that I haven’t been able to try ITx6 in a raid as of 3.2 (yet) and so don’t have any solid numbers. That said, Erekose (the author of the ITx6 explanation video I’ve posted about before) has suggested it is once again viable. Here’s his post on EJ for your viewing pleasure. So if I have no numbers, what’s this post about? Well, DPS specs are about 90% numbers and 10% other random crap that goes on in the background.

For reference, here are the two specs I’m going to be talking about (and their corresponding rotations):

ITx6: Spec (take points out of Dark Conviction and into Virulence if you need extra hit that you don’t have on your gear)

Flexible rotation (with so many Death Runes, it’s easy to fit in things like Pestilence and Unbreakable Armor as necessary)

15% movement speed from UP (frees up your boot enchant plus the move speed is helpful in general)

More procs from the 15% melee haste in UP

Single-disease rotation is simpler to manage and allows you to start DPSing new targets quicker

Able to make good use of any and all procs

Can take advantage of AMS soaking rather than simply getting capped)

Parries/dodges/misses don’t screw up the rotation

Cons

Lower disease damage (single-disease, no BP modifier)

Can’t take advantage of Glyph of Disease (one-disease rotation makes it moot)

Lower AoE damage

Requires spell hit to function properly (way more ITs in the rotation compared to the Obliterate-centric rotation)

Without a source of magical damage to AMS soak from can have downtime in the rotation

Obliterate glyph is much less effective than the other Frost rotation since ITx6 uses so few)

Disease clipping (casting IT before FF falls off)

Doesn’t benefit well from ArPen (~45+% damage is from Frost Strike)

Only really wants Str/AP/hit on gear, all other stats are largely wasted

And now the Obliterate-centric rotation:

Pros

Higher disease damage (no clipping)

Higher Obliterate damage (takes full advantage of the glyph)

Higher AoE damage

Can use Glyph of Disease if not providing the 20% haste buff

No downtime in the rotation

Scales well with ArPen (prevalent on a lot of gear)

Cons

Extremely GCD-locked

Can’t effectively make use of all Rime/KM procs without delaying the rotation and therefore rune refreshes

Difficult to fit UA into the rotation (even with macros, requires extremely difficult and precise timing, making it unavailable at certain points in the rotation, such as when Frost Runes are available)

Extra RP is essentially wasted (from AMS soaking or other sources, such as a Druid’s Revitalize talent)

No movement speed buff (stuck with the Tuskarr’s boot enchant)

Capped expertise required since parries/anything that pushes the rotation back will have a negative effect on DPS

All this said, I’m going to test out ITx6 and post a parse of that compared to a parse of previous boss fights done with the DW Frost spec. If you’ve tried ITx6 post-3.2 or have pros/cons to add please e-mail me or post in the comments. All the utility in the world means nothing if one spec dominates in DPS.

Edit: Although I don’t have any parses because the person who usually records them wasn’t on for most of the raid, I found that I was doing competetive DPS – slight variations up or down most likely due to rustiness with the spec.